


Clockwork

by Vampiyaa



Series: Prompts [8]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Drama, Episode: s02e04 The Girl in the Fireplace, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Romance, Smut, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-15
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-04-14 21:45:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4581240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vampiyaa/pseuds/Vampiyaa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nine/Rose; Part Eight of the Prompts series. The Doctor, Rose and Jack land on an abandoned spaceship in the future, with a mysterious time portal in the form of a fireplace connecting to 18th century France. Things go a bit differently. Girl in the Fireplace AU with Nine instead of Ten.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue - Cogs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Peleinferno](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Peleinferno).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack's first trip ends Team TARDIS somewhere they weren't planning to go.

Prologue  
Cogs

It was bright and early in the morning, the day after the Doctor had rescued Jack from his doomed ship and then had subsequently marked his territory by spending the rest of the night dancing with Rose. Jack had retired early after watching them for a minute or two, already prepared to place himself in the role of the harmlessly flirty friend since it was clear from the moment he met these people that they were idiots in love.

Now, he strolled out into the console room where Rose and the Doctor were already awake and waiting for him. Jack smirked when he noticed faint blushes on both of their cheeks and forced small talk— apparently the little show of dominance the Doctor had put on hadn’t been on the schedule for them.

“So,” Jack said conversationally, plopping himself down next to Rose and pretending he didn’t notice the Doctor’s slight glare. “What exactly do you guys do in this time machine box? Besides the obvious, of course,” Jack added with an eyebrow quirk.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and Rose giggled. “We have adventures,” Rose told him. “Save people.”

“You know, the normal stuff,” the Doctor said sarcastically, still looking annoyed over the jab at his ship. “Anywhere in space and time, Harkness.”

Jack whistled, honestly impressed. A grin spread over his face and he said, “Anywhere?”

“Not where you’re thinking,” the Doctor snapped, and Rose laughed again. Smacking on a couple of buttons, he said, “How about—”

“Altuvia?” Jack piped up.

“No,” the Doctor said, ignoring when Rose tossed him a confused look. “Jinn. It’s a very safe, _asexually reproducing_ species of people who are known for their purple apricots.”

“Oh my God, those little fuzzy purple things you put on pancakes last month?” Rose said, sitting up at once. “That’s it, we’re going.”

Grinning like a loon, the Doctor did a little dance around the console, shouting, “Right-o, Rose Tyler!” 

Everyone’s grins of amusement slid off their faces when the TARDIS let out a groaning noise, and another sound followed like the screeching of metal on metal. Rose opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, but before she could say anything the ship jerked violently and she was thrown up against one of the coral struts. Jack sailed past her as well, crashing into the wall and falling into a heap on the floor, and the Doctor was thrown into the railing. 

When the ship stilled with a quiet creak, the Doctor recovered first, hurrying over to Rose’s side to make certain she was all right. After giving him a reassuring nod and rubbing her hip, which had knocked into the hard coral, Rose asked confusedly, “What the hell was that?”

“I dunno,” the Doctor said, as Jack managed to untangle himself and stand up. “Might as well investigate.”

The trio headed towards the doors, and Jack was the first to step outside. “It’s a spaceship!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta-d by Miral-Romanov.
> 
> I know this is kind of short, and I wasn't going to post it until the fic was done but the prompter of this fic told me it was her birthday so I just had to :3 Prompt (from Peleinferno) was: "I was hoping to read an AU of Girl in the Fireplace with Nine/Rose. I'd like to see if you think Reinette would still consider Nine to be her "angel" and how Nine would avoid getting himself stranded in France. It's up to you whether the Doctor and Rose are in an established relationship or if this event is the catalyst". The fic is going to be five chapters long, with a prologue and epilogue, and to prevent another long wait in the vain of Natural Selection I have 4/5 chapters written. There's going to be a considerable amount of dialogue from the episode GitF of course, but I've edited scenes to a) fit in with Nine's personality and b) to cater to my own nefarious whims *evil grin* Enjoy...


	2. Mainspring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor, Rose and Jack find the fireplace, except Rose is the one to go through it this time.

Chapter 1  
Mainspring

“It’s a spaceship,” Jack repeated, as Rose and the Doctor followed to take in the grey-blue metal walls and humming ambient noise of space. He sounded a bit disappointed. “I get a spaceship for my first trip? Not exactly something new and exciting, Doc.”

“S’not my fault,” the Doctor insisted, whipping out his sonic. “I tried to take us to Jinn, remember?”

Rose swept her eyes around, taking in the messy, wired console, the glowing blue pods and the floor scattered with bits and pieces of equipment. Nudging a long cylindrical pole-thing with the toe of her trainer, Rose said curiously, “It looks kind of abandoned. Anyone on board?”

“Doesn’t look like it, does it?” the Doctor said, not looking up from his sonic. 

“What are you doing?” Jack asked.

“Just doin’ a couple o’ quick scans just in case there’s anything dangerous,” the Doctor said. “Wouldn’t want to be surprised, now would we?”

“Like we haven’t been before,” Rose grinned. When the Doctor sent her a look of mock-irritation, she added, “So, what’s the date? How far’ve we gone?”

“About three thousand years into your future, give or take,” the Doctor said, lowering his sonic and stepping over to the console. Upon flicking a switch and pulling upwards, a loud powering sound began and the ceiling of the ship opened up to show of a pink-dusted cluster of twinkling stars. “Fifty-first century, Diagmar Cluster. Two and a half galaxies away from Earth.”

“Aw, seriously Doc?” Jack said in a whiny tone. “Been there, done that.”

“Well, if it’s such old news to you, Jackie boy, you can wait in the ‘time machine box’,” the Doctor snarked, looking annoyed that Jack was less than impressed.

Jack held up his hands in surrender, adding quickly, “Nah, I’m good.”

Looking only slightly mollified, the Doctor turned his attention back to the console, which was scattered with rusty bits and pieces of half-finished repairs. Frowning, he said, “Hm. Got a ton of repair work going on.” His frowned deepened when he spotted the monitor lit up with the outline of the ship. “Now that’s odd. Look at that. All the warp engines are going. Full capacity. There’s enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe, but we’re not moving. So where’s all that power going?”

“Where’d all the crew go?” Rose said, looking around at the empty mess of a console room.

“Good question. No life readings on board.”

Rose shrugged and said, “Well, we’re in deep space. They didn’t just nip out for a quick fag.”

“No, I’ve checked all the smoking pods.” Rose rolled her eyes at the joke that had just flown over the Doctor’s head, but he was oblivious, wielding his sonic again and poking at the wiring. “Might as well finish these repairs, see if we can get the database working.”

“And that could tell us where the crew went?” Jack said.

“If they evacuated the ship somehow, it should have logs,” the Doctor said. 

Jack watched, fascinated as the Doctor ran the sonic over several torn-up wires, the copper ends of which twisted themselves together and the plastic coatings sealed themselves up without a seam left behind. “Wow,” Jack said, impressed. “Where’d you get that screwdriver thing, Doc?”

“Made it,” the Doctor grunted, too immersed in his work to give a more eloquent answer.

“Can I have one?”

“So you can gallivant across time and space ‘accidentally’ sealing yourself into rooms with other people?” the Doctor snorted. “Not bloody likely.”

“Fair enough,” Jack grinned.

The Doctor sealed up a couple more wires and shut the console latch with a bang. “Got it,” he said triumphantly, bouncing to the other side of the console the same way he did with the TARDIS and pressing a handful of buttons. A built-in monitor flickered to life and began rapidly flashing a neat list of shorthand information. “Here we are, then,” the Doctor said, gesturing for his companions to gather round. “Morbius-class freighter, commissioned and launched thirty-seven years ago.” He let out an interested ‘ooh’. “ _S.S. Madame de Pompadour_. Interesting name for a ship.”

“How come?” Rose asked.

“Madame de Pompadour was an important figure in eighteenth century France, Rose,” said the Doctor, looking pleased to be able to go on a historical tangent. “One of the most accomplished women who ever lived— actress, artist, musician, dancer, courtesan. Earned herself a handful of titles. She was practically the uncrowned Queen of France.”

“Wait, I remember her,” Jack piped up, looking gleeful. “Wasn’t she the mistress of King Louis the something-th?” 

“Fifteenth,” the Doctor corrected. “Yep! Good friends with the queen, too.”

“Wait, the king’s wife and the king’s girlfriend were friends?” Rose said, raising an eyebrow.

“France,” the Doctor said with a shrug. “It’s a different planet.” 

“We should have gone to France instead,” said Jack unabashedly, sending Rose a wink that had her giggling.

“Well, now this is odd,” the Doctor said, as he continued reading. “There should have been a crew of over fifty people here. There’s no record of them evacuating to a separate ship.”

“So they just… disappeared?” Rose frowned. 

“Maybe they were transmatted?” Jack suggested.

“There would be a record of that too.” The Doctor paused for a moment, head quirking up. “Can you smell that?”

Rose sniffed the air, and the smell of cooking meat met her nose. “Yeah, someone’s cooking.”

Jack chipped in, “Sunday roast, definitely.”

“Odd time to be havin’ a barbeque, especially when there’s no one on board,” the Doctor remarked. He flicked another couple of switches on the console and a door situated behind them slid open. “Here we are, then.” 

The Doctor ducked through the doorway, and Rose and Jack followed, frowning at the sight that met them. The farthest wall at the end of the room was panelled with dark oak lined with bronze, a stark contrast to the metal of the rest of the room, and right smack in the middle of it was a beautifully crafted, ornate fireplace. On the mantelpiece was an ormolu clock whose face was shattered and there was a merrily crackling fire in the grate. 

“Well, there’s something you don’t see in your average spaceship,” the Doctor said, pocketing his sonic and approaching it. Upon scrutinising it with a curious look, he continued knowingly, “Eighteenth century. French. Nice mantel.” He sonicked it for a moment. “Not a hologram. It’s not even a reproduction. This actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace. Double sided.” Peeking through the blazing fire, he added with interest, “There’s another room through there.”

“There can’t be,” Rose said with a frown, peering through a porthole in the panelled wall. “That’s the outer hull of the ship. Look.”

“Hello,” the Doctor answered in a gentle tone, making Rose pull away to see whom he was speaking to. To her astonishment, on the other side of the fireplace was a young girl with silver-blonde hair, kneeling on the floor and blinking at them curiously. The stone floor was dirtying the hem of her fancy-looking nightgown, but she looked unperturbed by it, too interested in the people staring at her through her fireplace.

“Hello,” she answered back, voice thick with fascination.

“What’s your name?” the Doctor said kindly.

“Reinette.”

“Reinette, that’s a lovely name. Can you tell me where you are at the moment, Reinette?”

“In my bedroom,” she said, with all the bluntness of a child.

Chuckling, the Doctor added, “And where’s your bedroom? Where do you live, Reinette?”

“Paris, of course,” Reinette said, sending him a look that suggested she thought he was bonkers.

“Paris, right!” he said cheerily, like he’d known all along.

“Monsieur, what are you doing in my fireplace?” she asked, like it was normal for people to inhabit fireplaces.

“Er…” said the Doctor, scrambling to come up with an explanation. Rassilon, he was rubbish with children.

Sensing the Doctor’s dilemma, Rose ducked her head so she was in view of the fireplace as well and smiled warmly. “S’just a routine… er, fire check. Nothing special.”

Reinette blinked but sat back, apparently mollified by the ridiculous answer. Casting Rose a thankful glance, the Doctor said, “Can you tell me what year it is?”

“Of course I can,” Reinette said, a little indignantly as though the Doctor had challenged her intellect. “Seventeen hundred and twenty-seven.”

“Right, lovely,” the Doctor said, beaming. “One of my favourites. August is rubbish though. Stay indoors.” He paused for a moment, shock flickering over his face. “Wait a minute, what’s your last name, Reinette?”

“Poisson.” 

Jaw dropping, the Doctor burst out gleefully, “Poisson? Reinette Poisson? No! No, no, no, no, no way. Reinette Poisson? Later Madame Etoiles? Later still mistress of Louis the Fifteenth, uncrowned Queen of France?” 

“Wait, _she’s_ Madame de Pompadour?” Jack gaped.

“A very young Madame de Pompadour,” the Doctor said with delight, scrutinising the slightly frightened-looking child. “I wonder why there’s a portal into her bedroom.”

To everyone’s shock, Reinette suddenly drew herself up as best she could being only four feet tall and said indignantly, “It is very rude of you to speak of me in the third person whilst I am here, Monsieur. You are not a very nice fireplace man. Perhaps you should leave.”

The Doctor looked equal parts shocked and offended, and Rose smirked for a moment before addressing Reinette. “Sorry ‘bout that, Reinette. He’s a bit rude. He didn’t mean it, honest.” The Doctor looked a bit grumpy at her words, which made Reinette grin. “Thanks for your help, sweetheart,” Rose added, smiling back. “Night-night, sleep well.”

“Goodnight Madame,” Reinette said happily, standing up and padding over to her bed.

The Doctor and Rose stood up properly, and Jack inputted, “You said this was the fifty-first century.”

“I also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe,” the Doctor replied. “I think we just found the hole.”

“And on the other side of the hole shaped like an old-fashioned fireplace is France in 1727?” Rose said, running her fingers over the ornate carvings on the mantelpiece.

“Well, she was speaking French. Right period French, too.”

Jack’s brows furrowed with confusion for a moment, but he soon snapped his fingers and said, “Universal translator?”

“In the TARDIS,” said the Doctor.

“She translates for you,” Rose said, tracing the outlines of the clock. “Gets in your head.”

“Even Urglixxipiglorian?” Jack said.

“What the hell is that?” Rose asked with a snort. “Sounded like you were just chokin’ on your own tongue, Jack.”

“Pretty much,” Jack grinned. 

“The language consists of certain pitched gurgles that the throats of most species are insufficient to mimic,” the Doctor said. “And yes, she even translates Urglixxipiglorian.” 

“Impressive,” Jack remarked, and the Doctor smirked.

“Yeah, she’s brilliant,” Rose said absently, standing on tiptoe and frowning as she spotted something odd on the far end of the mantel. “What is that?”

“What is what?” the Doctor said, turning around just in time to see the fireplace spin around, taking Rose with it and replacing itself with an identical fireplace. “Rose!” 

*

Rose gasped out in alarm when the fireplace suddenly started spinning, hurling her onto the other side into Reinette’s bedroom. Grabbing onto the mantelpiece for leverage, she waited until the fireplace had come to a complete stop before straightening up and taking a look around. She was in Reinette’s bedroom, it seemed, which was silent save for the ticking from the clock, lit only by the fire and chilly from the howling snowstorm outside. Reinette was sleeping peacefully on a ridiculously large, fluffy bed— or had been, since apparently Rose’s loud gasp had startled her awake. 

“S’okay,” Rose said quickly, before she could start screaming and alert somebody nearby. “S’just me. We were talkin’ just a moment ago— in your fireplace, yeah? Remember?” 

“Madame, that was weeks ago,” Reinette said curiously. “That was months.”

“Really?” Rose frowned, wondering how a minute for her could have been months for Reinette. Her heart stuttered into a gallop when she realised that could also mean it could take months for the Doctor to come and rescue her. “Oh, bollocks.”

As Rose desperately dropped to her knees, trying to peek through the fire to try and catch a glimpse of her friends, Reinette sat up a little straighter and demanded, “Who are you? And what are you doing here?”

“I’m… a friend,” Rose said lamely. “An’ I’m sort of here by accident. Sorry ‘bout that.”

“By accident? You did not mean to travel through my fireplace?”

“No,” Rose said, standing up with disappointment when she couldn’t see through the fire. “Just ended up here, me.” Rose suddenly stiffened, eye-level with the broken ormolu clock. “Reinette?”

“Yes, Madame?”

“How long’s this clock been broken?”

“A year,” Reinette answered. “Why?”

“‘Cos something’s still ticking,” Rose said, turning around and sweeping her eyes around the room. “Is that the only clock you have?”

“Yes, Madame.” 

Grabbing a nearby candle, Rose briefly held it in the fire to light the wick and held it up in front of her to better light the room. “Stay on your bed,” Rose ordered, when Reinette made to wriggle out of her bedcovers to help. 

She strained her ears to try and find the source of the ticking, holding the candle out to light up the more darkened corners in the room. Reinette clapped her hands over her mouth tightly, trying not to make a sound and be as helpful as possible. Unfortunately, it seemed the closer Rose got to Reinette’s bed, the louder the ticking got.

Starting to suspect where the ticking was coming from, Rose whispered, “Stay on the bed. Right in the middle— don’t put your hands or feet over the edge.”

Reinette nodded, scooting herself into the middle of the bed and curling up into a tight ball while Rose lowered herself to the ground. Pressing her ear to the floor, she held the candle out underneath the darkened bed, gasping and scrambling backward when something snatched the candle out of her grasp, making it clatter to the ground and roll away. She stood up hurriedly, ready to grab Reinette to safety, only to gasp even louder when she spotted the darkened figure standing by the other end of Reinette’s bed. Whatever it was, it was the source of the ticking, dressed in old-fashioned clothes and was wearing a powdered wig and a creepy, porcelain mask. It was like something straight out of a horror film.

“Holy shite,” Rose breathed, standing stock-still. Reinette began to turn around, and Rose said quickly, “No, don’t look at it.”

“What is it, Madame?” Reinette whispered, sounding terrified.

“Nothing,” Rose whispered back. “S’just a nightmare. Everything’s fine, just keep lookin’ at me.” Shaking off her initial alarm, Rose tried to make her voice sound menacing and said firmly, “Who are you? What d’you want?” It stayed silent, but she felt it watching her through the eyeholes of the mask. “Are you the one who made that… portal thing from the ship?” Rose tried again, gesturing towards the fireplace. Instead of answering, a sharp blade suddenly flicked out of its hand, shimmering in the firelight. “Shit,” Rose muttered, as it started stalking towards her. 

Reinette finally caught a glimpse of it, shrieking out in alarm. Rose backed up as best she could, but she was cornered. “Madame, be careful!” Reinette cried, as it slashed at Rose, forcing her to duck out of the way. 

Back hitting the mantel, Rose pressed herself against the fireplace as though trying to sink into it. As the ticking figure swung its blade at her again, Rose squeezed her eyes out and screamed, “DOCTOR!” 

Almost at once, the fireplace swung around again, making both Rose and the figure stumble. The blade got stuck into the mantelpiece, pacifying it for a moment as it struggled to pull it out. When the fireplace halted completely, Rose was suddenly grabbed and dragged away from the figure, wrapped up in a leather embrace.

“Rose,” the Doctor gasped, frantically looking her over. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Rose choked, trying not to shake too much. Pointing at the figure, which was still trying to free its blade, she said, “Found _that_ in Reinette’s bedroom.”

Seconds after the words had left her mouth, the armed thing managed to pull the blade out of the mantel, which had left a pin-sized dent. Before it could try and swipe at their heads, the Doctor shoved Rose out of harm’s way and grabbed for a nearby fire extinguisher set on a rack, aiming the hose and pulling the trigger. The masked figure flailed at having frosted coolant being blown in its face, but to Rose’s astonishment its movements gradually slowed until it was completely frozen in place.

“Sweet,” Jack exclaimed. “Ice gun.”

“Fire extinguisher,” the Doctor corrected, examining it with interest. “Only a temporary measure, but good in a pinch.” 

Feeling slightly more confident now that the thing that had attacked her was subdued for now, Rose chimed in, “I found it hiding underneath Reinette’s bed. It tried to swipe at me when I asked if it was responsible for opening the portal.”

“Of course it is,” the Doctor said, peering at it. “There’s a portal opened up straight into Madame de Pompadour’s bedroom originating on a fifty-first century ship called the _S.S. Madame de Pompadour_. Besides, this thing came from this century.”

“So why is it dressed like that?” Jack asked.

“Field trip to France,” the Doctor answered. “Some kind of basic camouflage protocol. Nice needlework, shame about the face.” Rose smirked despite herself, but that quickly dropped when the Doctor pushed away the creepy smiley mask to reveal a glass-covered head with brass clockwork ticking away inside it. “Oh, you are beautiful! No, really, you are! Look at that. Space age clockwork— I love it!” 

Before the Doctor could go any further into his gleeful tangent, Rose silenced him with a confused, “So then, what exactly is it?”

“A fifty-first century clockwork droid, Rose Tyler,” the Doctor said proudly, leaving unnoticed the slight twitches the droid was making. “And for some reason, it wants little Reinette in there.”

“Not yet,” came a mechanical voice from the domed head of the droid, making Rose jump. “She is incomplete.”

“Incomplete?” the Doctor repeated. “What d’you mean, incomplete?” Instead of answering, it straightened itself up and suddenly vanished in a flash of tingly gold light. Rose gasped and the Doctor remarked, “Short range teleport. Can’t have got far. Could still be on board. Don’t go looking for it!” he added, sending Rose a sharp look as he approached the fireplace.

“Where’re you going?” Rose said.

“Just to check on Reinette, make sure there’s not another one in her bedroom,” the Doctor said reassuringly, searching the mantelpiece for the button Rose had used. “Back in a sec. _Don’t_ go looking for it,” he repeated again, as he spun out of view.

Despite his warnings, Rose immediately hitched up the gun and aimed the nozzle like a gun. Jack grinned and reminded her, “He said not to look for it.”

“Yeah, he did,” Rose said, sending him a look.

“Ooh, rebellious. I like it,” Jack said, grin widening. He hopped over to the rack and grabbed the second fire extinguisher. 

“Now you’re getting it,” Rose said cheerfully, sending him a tongue-touched grin before heading back the way they’d come, an awestruck Jack in tow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Beta: Miral-Romanov**.
> 
> A/N: I know there was only a little bit tweaked in this chapter, but don't worry- the next one's going to go a lot differently ;) Sorry for the lateness, my computer's been in and out of the shop three times in the last month alone and the only reason I was able to edit and post this chap is because I hijacked my sister's computer and rummaged through the Cloud. I'll try to do it again as soon as I can.


	3. Wheels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upon going through the fireplace, the Doctor meets a fully-grown Reinette... and gets snogged by her. He's not pleased.

Chapter 2  
Wheels

When the fireplace stopped spinning on the other side, the Doctor blinked in shock at the changes that had been made to Reinette’s bedroom in such a short time. An elegant harp and a vanity stocked with feminine makeup products like powder puffs and filigree combs replaced the child’s porcelain dolls and toy knickknacks. Instead of a fluffy, overly large child’s bed, there was an equally fluffy, overly large adult’s bed with a carved oak bed frame. The Doctor frowned, peering his head around the corner to try and catch a glimpse of the little girl.

“Reinette?” he called. “Just checking you’re okay.”

Nobody answered him, and he harrumphed, wondering if he ought to go back to Rose or risk somebody catching him in the room and wait for Reinette. He strolled over to the harp, plucking a couple of strings and wishing his work-hardened hands were good enough to play like his eighth self’s had been. Did he still remember how to play? He wasn’t sure.

Somebody cleared their throat behind him, and he whirled around, taking in the refined-looking woman with her silver-blonde hair twisted into a bun on top of her head, standing in the doorway and staring at him with a look of polite astonishment.

Mentally cursing and hoping she wasn’t the screaming type, he said cheerfully, “Oh. Hello. Er, I was just looking for Reinette. This is still her room, isn’t it? I’ve been away, not sure how long.”

From the doorway, a faint voice from an older woman called, “Reinette! We’re ready to go.”

The blonde woman called back, without taking her eyes off the Doctor, “Go to the carriage, Mother. I will join you there!” The Doctor gaped at her— _this_ was the little girl in the nightgown he’d just seen less than ten minutes ago? His mind started whirling with theories about loose connections and the potential temporal instability of the portal, but he snapped himself out of it when he realised Reinette had taken a step forward and was speaking to him. “It is customary, I think, to have an imaginary friend only during one’s childhood. You are to be congratulated on your persistence.”

“Reinette!” he exclaimed, masking his astonishment. “Well. Goodness, how you’ve grown.”

“And you do not appear to have aged a single day,” she said in an almost prim voice, like she was unperturbed by what to her should be an impossibility. “That is tremendously impolite of you.”

He chuckled. “Right, yes, sorry. Listen, lovely to catch up, but better be off, eh? I’ve got Rose back there waiting for me,” he said, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the fireplace. A furrow of confusion settled between her brow, and he elaborated, “Er, my friend, the blonde girl.”

Reinette’s face seemed to brighten. “I remember her! She vouched for your rudeness.” 

The Doctor chuckled again. “Yep, that’s sor’ of her job.”

“And she is as unchanged as you are, yes?”

“Yep!” he said cheerily, sticking his hands into his jean pockets. “Well, in any case, don’t want your mother finding you up here with a strange man, do we?”

Reinette blinked. “Strange? How could you be a stranger to me? I’ve known you since I was seven years old.”

“Yeah, I suppose you have,” he answered with a shrug. “I came the quick route.”

She stepped forward and lifted one dainty hand to press and prod at his chest, something that made him shift uncomfortably. “You seem to be flesh and blood, at any rate, but this is absurd. Reason tells me you cannot be real.”

“Right, erm, well…” he said lamely, trying to take a step backward. “I should _really_ be getting back to Rose—”

This time, a man’s voice called through the doorway, “Mademoiselle! Your mother grows impatient.”

“A moment!” Reinette answered back vaguely, keeping her attention on him. Her eyes had glazed over, and he wasn’t entirely certain how to feel about it. “So many questions. So little time.”

And suddenly the Doctor found himself with an armful of woman, lips colliding with his and making the taste of artificial chemicals from lip colouring explode on his tongue. It was messy, mostly because the Doctor kept desperately trying to turn his head away, but Reinette kept forcing him to straighten with two dainty hands on either side of his face. He tried stumbling backward, back hitting the mantle of the fireplace, and when Reinette still didn’t stop, annoyance blossomed in his chest. 

_Enough of this_. Grabbing both of her ridiculously tiny wrists with his large hands, he forced her hands off him and subsequently pushed her away, glaring at her. “Have you gone barking?” he demanded angrily, ignoring the look of astonishment on her face. “What the hell d’you think you’re doing? Has all that white powder gone to your head already?”

“Mademoiselle Poisson!” wafted in from outside the room— the man again.

The Doctor didn’t even register the nearness of the man’s voice, too busy glaring down the woman in front of him, who was slowly reddening with anger and humiliation. With a furious huff, Reinette turned around in a swish of skirts and ran out of the room. Despite her absence, the man — a servant, it seemed — entered the room, looking horrified at the sight of an angry man standing in Reinette’s bedroom. 

“Who the hell are you?!” the servant shouted.

“I’m the Doctor!” he shouted back, stomping over to the fireplace and adding for good measure, “and I’m _leaving_!” before triggering it to spin without any regard for the servant he was leaving as a witness.

While the fireplace was spinning, he quickly rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand to try and spare himself the potential mortification of Rose catching him with lippy on. However when the fireplace halted again, he found the room empty of any presence.

“Rose?” he called. “Jack?” His anger quickly came back when he realised his two companions had wandered off, despite his explicit instructions, and he resisted the urge to stomp his foot. “Every time. _Every time_ , it’s rule one. Don’t wander off. I tell them, I do. Rule one. There could be anything on this ship!” Upon his words, a fully saddled white horse trotted into the room, regarding him with a snort. Throwing up his hands, he exclaimed in irritation, “Fan- _bloody_ -tastic!”

*

Meanwhile, Rose and Jack were stalking the spaceship in search of the clockwork droid. Rose had been rolling her eyes in thirty-second intervals, to the point where they were starting to ache, as Jack had spent every moment of their time alone trying to cop feels or impress her with intelligent babble It was almost exactly like the Doctor would do, except Jack didn’t go off on ridiculous tangents Rose would never be able to understand, and while the Doctor was pretty handsy himself (not that she was complaining) the only feels Jack copped was of her bum. 

“Awesome,” Jack exclaimed, hopping around a mess of wires to go and look at some weird, extended cylinder thing on the wall. “A military grade 180-degree surveillance cylinder. Haven’t seen one of those in years.” Rose rolled her eyes at him yet again, two seconds away from outwardly telling him he could stop trying to pick her up with space talk, up until Jack took a step backward from it, looking confused. “Um, I don’t remember military-grade surveillance cylinders having real eyeballs for cameras.”

“What?” Rose gaped, hurrying over to his side to take a look. Lo and behold, a real eye blinked back at her, extending itself from the bulkhead as though to get a closer look at her as well and causing her to jump back. “That’s an eye in there. That’s a real eye.”

As quickly as it had extended, the camera retreated back into the wall, shying from their scrutiny. Undeterred, Rose approached it only to pause when a strange, rhythmic thumping sound echoed from inside the bulkhead. She stepped forward and reached towards a circular hatch on the bulkhead, wincing for a moment when her fingers met hot metal, only to frown down at the wires and pipes. Something glowing and red was squashed into the wiring. 

“What is that?” Rose said in shock. “What’s that in the middle there? Looks like it’s wired in.”

“It’s a heart, Rosie,” said Jack, his voice more sober than Rose had ever heard. “It’s a human heart.”

*

“Rose?” the Doctor kept calling, determined to find her before something else did. The annoyance from earlier, still brimming just on the surface, returned quickly when he heard the telltale noises of horse hooves hitting metal. He whirled around, glaring at the horse, which blinked at him innocently. “Will you stop following me? I’m not your mother.”

He turned back around and stormed away, and the horse lazily trotted after him. The Doctor resolved to ignore it, deciding he’d take it into the TARDIS later and maybe put it in one of the stables so he could forget about it and this whole fiasco of an adventure. He opened a pair of white wooden doors, and bright sunlight flooded in, making him blink for a moment. Evidently he’d stumbled upon another time portal, this one apparently leading into a lovely, brightly lit courtyard.

“Well, go on then,” the Doctor said to the horse, gesturing towards the portal. The horse snorted at him but didn’t move. “Go _on_ , you stupid animal. Back into your own time period.”

It still didn’t budge, and the Doctor huffed out an annoyed sigh, fully prepared to push the horse into the time portal and be done with it. He froze in mid-step when he spotted Reinette and a friend strolling arm-in-arm down a pathway, both sporting lacy umbrellas. Remembrance of being suffocated by her lips and her artificial flowery perfume made him irrationally furious again, and he snorted at the sight of her, willing to bet a million credits that she was gossiping like a hormone-driven hag about utter nonsense. Desperately missing Rose, her level-headedness and her wonderfully inelegant Wichita Falls t-shirt, he turned sharply from the portal and headed back off in search of her.

The horse continued to follow.

*

“Maybe it wasn’t a real heart,” Jack tried to rationalise.

“‘Course it was a real heart,” Rose rebutted.

Jack opened his mouth to argue but shut it anyway, knowing full well what he saw. He still had one nagging question though, so he said instead, “Is this normal for you guys? Is this an average day?”

“Life with the Doctor, Jack?” Rose snorted. “No more average days.”

Jack took a moment to think about it, before deciding aloud with a giant grin, “Awesome.”

Rose grinned and shifted the way she held the fire extinguisher so she could bump her hip into his. “Knew you were companion material, Jack!”

“If I keep impressing you, does that mean—?” 

“ _No_ , Jack,” Rose interrupted, before he could finish his sentence. “Honestly, we just found a real heart wired into the ship and _that’s_ all you can think about?”

“Fair enough,” he grinned.

Rose rolled her eyes again, but stopped midway through when she spotted something in her peripheral vision. Gesturing for Jack to follow, the two of them approached what looked like a large pair of windows set into the wall of the ship, which looked straight into another lavishly decorated room that was unmistakeably from the same time period as Reinette’s.

“Is that France again?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, definitely,” said Rose, examining the window. “I think we’re looking through a mirror.”

Through the doorway on the other side of the mirror, a haughty-faced man wearing white, trailing robes entered the room with two men trailing near behind him. 

“Blimey, look at this guy,” Rose snorted. 

“I am,” Jack grinned, taking particular notice of the man’s skin-tight breeches showing off the outline of his legs. 

Ignoring him, Rose observed his pompous expression with a raised eyebrow and said, “Who does he think he is?”

“The king of France,” the Doctor answered a bit callously from behind them.

Rose turned around and sent him a tongue-touched smile, which widened when his stony expression melted away at once. Heart fluttering in her chest, she swallowed her delight and said with amusement, “Oh, here’s trouble. What’ve you been up to?”

“Oh, this and that,” he said vaguely, looking at King Louis instead of her with a grumpy expression. “We’re the imaginary friends of a future French aristocrat, by the way.” A horse trotted into the room, letting out a quiet whinny. “Oh, and I met a horse,” the Doctor added, sending it an exasperated look.

“You met a horse,” Rose repeated, blinking at it. “Okay… and why’s it followin’ you?”

“It won’t leave me alone,” the Doctor answered grumpily. 

“Well, send it home,” Rose said, as Jack stepped over to the horse and gave it a couple of pats.

“I tried!” the Doctor insisted. “It wouldn’t go in.” He suddenly remembered his previous anger, and demanded, “What did I say about wandering off? What have you and Harkness been doin’ this whole time?”

Rose shrugged innocently, but her eyes twinkled. “Just explorin’.” She sobered immediately when she remembered what she and Jack had found, and she told him in a serious tone, “We found a camera with an eye in it, and there was a heart wired into machinery.”

The Doctor frowned, and Rose could practically hear the gears whirring in his head. “This makes no sense,” he muttered, more to himself than to anyone in the room. “A destroyed ship floating in the middle of nowhere for thirteen months, clockwork droids opening time portals into Madame de Pompadour’s life, organs wired into machinery.” 

“Doctor,” Rose said, nudging him with her elbow to get his attention.

The Doctor looked up just in time to see Reinette, older than she had been when he’d last seen her, enter the room and sink into a perfect curtsey before the king. The Doctor wrinkled his nose, willing to bet she’d spent hours every day practising the movement. Mere minutes earlier, he would have been charmed by her elegance, but now all he could think of was being shoved up against the fireplace by her and her sudden snogs. He made an audible noise of disgust despite himself, causing Rose to send him a confused look.

“What’s the matter?” she asked him.

Her confusion increased tenfold when the Doctor, Oncoming Storm and almighty Time Lord, flushed a deep crimson right before her eyes. “Nothing,” he said. 

The answer was a bit too quick to be truthful, but the Doctor kept reddening underneath her scrutiny and Rose started to fear his head would explode, so she let it go. Rose gestured towards Reinette, who was standing straight as a pin as the king circled around her, looking her up and down like she was a prize he could claim. “Who is she?”

“Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette,” the Doctor replied, sounding like he was merely commenting on the weather. “One of the most accomplished women who ever lived.”

“ _That’s_ Reinette?” Rose said in shock. “But she was a kid!”

“Time portals, Rose,” the Doctor reminded her. “Not all of them are just into her childhood— they’re all over her life. I just went through the fireplace and saw her like this.”

He wrinkled his nose for some reason when he mentioned going through the fireplace, but Rose chose not to comment and instead turned back to face the fully-grown woman. “So has she got plans of being the queen, then?”

“No, he’s already got a queen,” the Doctor reminded her. “She’s got plans of being his mistress.”

“Oh, I get it,” Rose said with a snort, watching the king look her over. “Camilla.”

“I think this is the night they met,” he continued. “The night of the Yew Tree ball. In no time flat, she’ll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace. Even her own title. Madame de Pompadour.”

His tone sounded almost condescending. Rose frowned and turned to look at the Doctor, about to question him about his odd behaviour, but Jack beat her to the punch. “Twenty minutes ago you were freaking out over meeting her,” he said curiously. “What the hell happened?”

“ _Nothing_ , Harkness,” the Doctor hissed through gritted teeth, looking inches from smacking the captain. 

“Okay, okay,” Jack said, holding up his hands in surrender. “So why is the king of France circling around her like a vulture?”

“Checking to see if she’s pretty enough?” Rose suggested, and the Doctor nodded. Rose snorted and mumbled, “Men.”

“I plead the fifth,” Jack grinned.

The king suddenly straightened up and began to leave, gesturing for the servants to follow him, leaving Reinette by herself in the room. This time, when Reinette leaned forward to check her appearance in the mirror, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, the Doctor made absolutely certain to keep a mask of complete and total indifference in place. The courtesan suddenly straightened up and whirled around as though startled by something, and Rose craned her neck to see an eerily still woman standing in the shadows on the other side of the room. 

“Is that a droid?” Rose gasped.

“Looks like,” the Doctor said, grabbing her hand. “Come on, Rose!”

The mirror rotated and, with a squeeze of her fingers from the Doctor, she jumped through the time portal with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Beta: Miral-Romanov**.
> 
>  
> 
> A/N: So, what did you think of Nine's take on Reinette's Lips of Doom? :p I know I was kind of fudging a bit with the timelines regarding the mention of Venetian ceruse, since it had been officially classified as poison a century earlier, but it just seems like such a sassy Nine thing to say that I couldn't resist leaving it in there :3 Computer's still in the shop, still not sure how long it'll take. At this point I'm wondering if I should just buy a new one.


	4. Pinions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reinette barges her way into the Doctor's mind, which is fragile since the Time War, and ends up setting him off. Naughty things ensue :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: NSFW :)

Chapter 3  
Pinions

As the king of France bade her farewell with promises to return and exited the room, Reinette turned to the large floor-length mirror, regarding her reflection with a pleased smile. She’d been certain that her friend Catherine’s many moments of gossip about Madame de Chateauroux’s illness and passing, and the king’s subsequent need of a new mistress, were just the dreamings of a naïve noblewoman. However it seemed Catherine’s optimism on her behalf had been warranted, as the last several hours of being sweet-talked and consequently admired by King Louis had raised even Reinette’s hopes.

A wisp of hair had escaped her otherwise perfect bun, and she leaned forward, tucking it back behind her ear. Her heart stuttered in her chest when she spotted, in the mirror’s reflection, the figure of a woman standing behind her. She whirled around at once, mouth dropping open in shock.

“How long have you been standing there?” she demanded, furious at being intruded upon. Had she been eavesdropping on her conversation with the king as well? “Show yourself!”

The woman suddenly stepped forward from the shadows, revealing a smiling porcelain mask, and causing Reinette to gasp loudly in horror— it was another one of those _things_ from her childhood! The mirror behind her suddenly spun as her fireplace had, and through it stumbled the fireplace man, Rose and another man whom she didn’t recognise. 

“Hello, Reinette,” the Doctor greeted blankly, looking at the clockwork droid instead of her. “Hasn’t time flown?”

“Hi Reinette,” Rose added brightly, grabbing the nozzle of her fire extinguisher and aiming it straight at the droid. 

“Fireplace girl!” Reinette exclaimed.

Both Jack and Rose began spraying the droid with the fire extinguisher, coating it in a thick layer of frost. Just like the first droid, it flailed around for a bit before slowly down and freezing completely in place. Rose sent the Doctor a triumphant grin, but it quickly dropped off her face when the droid twitched, making a creaking noise.

“What’s it doing?” Jack asked.

“Switching back on,” the Doctor answered. “Melting the ice.”

“And then what?”

“Then it kills everyone in the room,” he said sarcastically. “Focuses the mind, doesn’t it?” Sending the briefest of glances towards Reinette, who flushed such a vibrant red that it made both Jack and Rose frown with confusion, the Doctor glared at the frosty droid and demanded, “Who are you? Identify yourself.” It stayed utterly silent, and the Doctor turned back to Reinette with a serious look on his face. “Order it to answer me.”

“Why should it listen to me?” Reinette said, hating how flustered she felt by just a look alone.

“There are time portals to points in your life originating from a ship over three thousand years in the future that’s named after you,” the Doctor said firmly. “Stands to reason they’ll listen to you.”

Despite the fact that she hadn’t understood a word, she turned to the droid and said, “Answer his question. Answer any and all questions put to you.”

“I am repair droid seven,” it said at once. 

“What happened to the ship, then?” the Doctor said. “There was a lot of damage.”

“Ion storm. Eighty-two percent systems failure.”

“That ship hasn’t moved in over a year,” said the Doctor. “What’s taken you so long?”

“We did not have the parts.”

“The parts…” the Doctor repeated, eyes blowing wide. “Always comes down to that, doesn’t it? The parts. The crew’s gone, and there are organs hooked up to the ship. Fifty people don’t just disappear. You didn’t have the parts, so you used the crew.”

“They dissected the crew?” Jack said, looking a little green. 

“The heart we saw was from a crewmember,” Rose said in horror, catching on.

“It was just doing what it was programmed to,” said the Doctor grimly. “Repairing the ship any way it can, with whatever it could find. No one told it the crew weren’t on the menu. What did you say the flight deck smelled of?”

“Someone cooking,” Rose breathed, and Jack made a quiet noise like a groan of disgust.

“Flesh plus heat. Barbeque.” He wrinkled his nose. “But what are you doing here? You’ve opened up time windows. That takes colossal energy. Why come here? You could have gone to your repair yard. Instead you come to eighteenth century France? Why?”

“One more part is required,” it chanted.

“Then why haven’t you taken it?” the Doctor said, frowning.

“She is incomplete.”

“What do they need from her?” Rose interjected. “What couldn’t they have gotten from the crew?”

“Her brain,” the Doctor spat, and Reinette looked so horrified that Rose passed her fire extinguisher to Jack and walked over to her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “The ship’s named after her, so they think they need her brain as an interface. Why haven’t they taken it years ago?”

“She is incomplete,” it repeated.

“What, so, that’s the plan, then?” the Doctor said. “Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, checking to see if she’s done yet.”

“We are the same,” it said suddenly.

“We are not the same,” Reinette insisted, trying not to tremble. Rose gripped her arm tightly, and it helped a little, but not enough. “We are in no sense the same.”

“We are the same.”

The droid’s chant, spoken as though what it was saying was solid fact, made fear constrict her chest. “Get out of here. Get out of here this instant!” Reinette shrieked, wishing they’d disappear.

“Reinette, no!” the Doctor shouted, but it was too late— the droid immediately obeyed her order and teleported itself away, subsequently fulfilling her wish. “It’s back on the ship,” the Doctor said urgently. “Jack, get after it. Follow it. Don’t approach it, just watch what it does.”

“Aye, aye, Doc,” Jack said, giving him a mock salute.

“What’m I supposed to do?” Rose said, reclaiming her fire extinguisher from Jack.

“Go back to the TARDIS,” the Doctor said firmly, looking at her with eyes that were so serious she felt like he was x-raying her insides.

“‘M not just gonna stay in the ship whilst you an’ Jack are runnin’ after murderous droids!” Rose said indignantly.

“Wasn’t gonna suggest it,” the Doctor assured her, approaching her and giving her shoulders a squeeze. “But those fire extinguishers aren’t good enough. The TARDIS’ll show you where the weapons are stored.”

Expression softening under his touch and gaze, she nodded obediently, and she and Jack exited back through the mirror. The Doctor watched her go for a moment before shutting the mirror behind them, half-hoping the TARDIS _did_ end up locking her inside.

“Well, fireplace man,” said Reinette in a blank voice, reminding him of her presence (and existence). “Now I see why you did not return my kiss.”

“What?” the Doctor said, frowning at her.

“Rose, the fireplace girl,” Reinette said, flinching slightly but standing her ground underneath his penetrating gaze. “You are besotted by her.”

“That’s none of your business,” the Doctor snapped at her. “And I don’t think there’s a single person in this galaxy who’d want to be _accosted_ by you.”

“Perhaps you should beg your pardon whilst you are ahead and rejoin your fireplace friends,” Reinette spat at him, crossing her arms huffily. 

He cursed himself in his mind and tried to calm down, reminding himself why he’d stayed behind in the first place. “I’m sorry,” he bit out, wincing when it sounded insincere even to his own ears. “Rose tells me I’m rude,” he added.

The side of Reinette’s mouth quirked up grudgingly. “I remember,” she said lightly, still not looking at him. 

“Er, right,” he said awkwardly, trying not to blush at the remembrance of the indignant child version of Reinette declaring him ‘not a very nice fireplace man’. Stepping forward, the Doctor added seriously, “Reinette, you’re going to have to trust me. I need to find out what they’re looking for. There’s only one way I can do that.” She glanced at him apprehensively, like she thought his intention was to hurt her. He added, “It won’t hurt a bit.”

Reinette looked him up and down but eventually nodded, straightening herself and allowing the Doctor to approach even closer. He lifted his hands but hesitated— he hadn’t flexed his telepathic abilities since the end of the Time War. Back then he’d known full well his mind was far too chaotic to risk going into someone else’s and potentially damaging it and his own permanently, but he rationalised that he was much more stable now. And besides, he really did need to take a look at Reinette’s mind to see if there was anything in particular that was of interest to the droids, and there was no one else who could do it.

Reinette frowned confusedly at him, and he shook himself out of it, placing his fingers at her temples and easing himself into her mind as carefully as possible. She gasped at the intrusion and exclaimed, “Fireplace man, you are inside my mind. You are in my memories— you walk among them.”

“It’s all right,” he assured her, his nervousness giving way as his confidence grew. He could do this. “If there’s anything you don’t want me to see, just imagine a door and close it. I won’t look. Oh, actually there’s a door just there. You might want to cl—” He frowned as several doors in Reinette’s mind swung closed at once. “Oh, actually, several.”

“To walk among the memories of another living soul,” Reinette breathed. “Do you ever get used to this?”

“Don’t make a habit of it, me,” he grunted, wishing she’d stop talking so he could concentrate.

“How can you resist?” she asked blissfully.

_With plenty of effort_. “What age are you?” he said instead.

“So impertinent a question so early in the conversation,” Reinette cooed, and his stomach flip-flopped— had she completely forgotten their earlier squabble? “How promising.”

He cleared his throat awkwardly. “No, not my question, theirs. You’re twenty-three and for some reason, that means you’re not old enough.” She started a little, and he added, “Sorry, you might find old memories reawakening. Side effect.” 

He started as well, feeling a strange sensation of something brushing on the edge of his own mind. Unsure of what it was, he took a moment to build up another layer of shields, just in case there was some outside source interfering. 

“Oh, such a lonely childhood,” Reinette said, clucking her tongue in sympathy.

“It’ll pass,” he said firmly, trying to get back to work. “Stay with me.”

“Oh, Doctor. So lonely. So very, very alone.”

Shock flooded his systems, still feeling the weird pressing sensation in his mind, and he asked hollowly, “What do you mean, alone? You’ve never been alone in your life. And when did you start calling me ‘Doctor’?”

“Such a lonely little boy…” she continued, like she couldn’t even hear him. 

Reinette’s mind suddenly surged into his, breaking past his meagre barriers, weakened, patchy and crumbling from the Time War. It was like opening and forcing something into a wound that had already long since scabbed over and scarred, painful and horror inducing and violating. Panic exploded behind his eyes, squeezing his hearts with black, cloudy fear, and with all his mental and physical strength he shoved her out of his mind and away from him completely. She stumbled and grabbed the wall for leverage, blinking hazily from being forcibly ejected, and managed to get her bearings straight just in time to see the Doctor, wide-eyed and crazed-looking, sprint across the room and throw himself through the mirror.

*

Rose slipped her TARDIS key out of her pocket and stepped inside the console room, setting the fire extinguisher down on the jump seat. She and Jack had long since parted ways, him heading off in the opposite direction in search of the droid; she had instructed him to keep close so she could find him later and give him whatever weapon the TARDIS gave to her.

The console room’s lights flickered in greeting, and she grinned at the ceiling. “Hello, old girl. Mind showin’ me where you keep the weapons?” She knocked her knuckle on the fire extinguisher’s canister, which made an echoing clanging noise. “The Doctor says these aren’t gonna cut it.” 

A couple of thudding noises later and a door to a storage closet rearranged itself to be right down the hall. Rose thanked the ship with a brief pat and headed into the storage room, rummaging through the haphazardly discarded series of weapons (why did the Doctor even need a bendy-straw that shot lasers?) until the TARDIS helpfully suggested a pair of Venusian stun guns for both her and Jack.

She slung one over her shoulder using an attached strap and hooked the other one on her arm, preparing to leave the ship until something ran headlong into her in the doorway. Rose was knocked down at once, causing her to drop the guns, fly backwards and whack her head on the grating. She shouted out in pain, blinking tears out of her eyes and managing to focus on the Doctor, who was practically pinning her against the console and staring at her with wide, demented eyes. His pupils were tiny pinpricks in a sea of icy blue, and it felt to Rose like he was looking at her without actually seeing her.

“Doctor?” she asked with concern.

Upon saying his name, his entire face crumpled in utter distress, knees giving way and causing him to collapse at her feet. He grabbed his head with his hands as though suffering a horrible migraine, and through the horrifying groans of pain Rose managed to catch him hissing through gritted teeth, “ _Get her out_ …” 

“Get who out?” Rose said gently. He was in the way, so she was unable to properly bend her knees to kneel down next to him, so she reached down and covered the hands gripping his head with her own hands to try and get him to look at her. It seemed to work for a moment; his hands fell away and his head tilted back to stare at her, mouth agape. She kept her hands in place, repeating, “Doctor?” to try and snap him out of whatever he was in.

The moment her fingers went anywhere near his temples, the Doctor’s entire expression changed from horror to crazed, stormy anger almost at once. He suddenly shot up like a spring, grabbing her by the shoulders and backing her up so roughly her back collided with the coral walls of the TARDIS. Rose let out another pained cry, up until the Doctor released her probably bruised shoulders and jammed his fingers onto her temples, and she started crying out for a different reason. 

It was like somebody had stabbed a hole in her skull and now the Doctor was pouring everything he was inside the wound, and it _hurt_. A lot. She barely felt her fingers grasping desperately at the Doctor’s back, nails digging into his jacket in an effort to get him to stop, but he was beyond lost. With an almost renewed vigour he broke whatever barriers Rose might have had left, making the pain double and pouring even more into her mind. Flashes of memories and emotions, from a lonely little child waddling through scarlet grass by himself to an equally lonely teenager walking alone in a golden building encased in a crystal bubble, were covered up almost immediately by a roaring thundercloud of turmoil. She was drowning in the cloud, and she gasped for air and desperately searched for a safe haven.

Through the thick blackness of the cloud she spotted the tiniest of clear spaces, like a door through which the storm couldn’t exit, and Rose struggled to free herself so she could reach the door. When she managed to fall through it at last she could _feel_ the Doctor’s shock at her entrance, feel how violated he’d felt, although she couldn’t find out what had happened to make him feel that way. Rose, thinking perhaps she was the reason, began to shrink away from him, but she felt him surge forward in desperate search of her, tiny tendrils trying to draw her further into his mind. 

She obliged, allowing herself to tentatively drift in until her decidedly golden existence soaked every crevice of his mind. His pleasure from her presence radiated through their link, making her breath hitch, and slowly the thundercloud eased out of her mind and dissipated into mist until their link wasn’t painful anymore— it was _brilliant_. He was everywhere at the same time and so was she, a constancy of bliss buzzing between them, and it took her a moment to realise that they’d been snogging desperately for almost a full minute.

Joined like this, Rose felt _everything_ he felt. How fantastic it was for him to push his tongue past her lips, tasting her; how it sent a zing up his spine to press himself against her hip a little; how his mind roiled with millions of ‘ _at last’_ s and ‘ _finally_ ’s and ‘ _I’ve wanted this for so long_ ’s. Her heart practically exploded in her chest and she gladly shoved her delight across their link with a partnered ‘ _me too_ ’, feeling his own delight flare up. 

She eased back slightly so she could concentrate at least a little on getting him naked, deciding (with a little help from his own intentions) that they were definitely doing this, in the TARDIS’s console room, against a wall. He felt her purpose and a sharp spike of arousal on his end made her tremble where she stood, feeling his desire to attack the buttons on her jeans but not wanting to break their link by moving his hands. She took the initiative on his behalf, pushing his jacket off an arm at a time so he didn’t have to completely break away, doing the same with his jumper and her own shirt, and their connection wasn’t as good with only one hand linking them but it was good enough. He used the hand away from her temple to trail up her stomach and slip underneath the right cup of her bra. 

Humming when he rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger, Rose wriggled her jeans and knickers off and let them pool at her feet, stepping out of them and using her foot to push them away. She felt his hesitance at her nudity, so she sent a rolling wave of peace in his direction, taking his hand off of her breast, pulling her mouth away from his to press a kiss to his fingers and guiding them to her naked hip. He stroked his thumb tentatively over her hipbone, testing the waters a bit, before his confidence grew slightly and his hand trailed down lower to cup her sex. She let out a tiny mewl when his finger dipped into her, and his shock at finding her wet radiated through their link. It was sweet, his utter astonishment at his discovery that she actually did want him, and she gathered up all the love she had for him and dumped it on his end of their link.

He suddenly yanked his hand away, and for a moment Rose thought she’d gone too far by showing him the extent of her feelings. At least, until his hand grabbed onto each of her thighs and yanked them over his hips so he was holding her up, and suddenly he was completely and wonderfully filling her and apparently she’d missed the moment when he’d managed to get his trousers undone. He pulled back and surged forward again, making her back and head collide with the hard coral and causing light to burst behind her eyelids, amplified by their link.

“Oh my _God_ ,” she choked out, both aloud and in her mind, and she could just _feel_ him grinning wickedly at her, the smarmy git. 

He slid in and out of her at a fast but not desperate pace, still somehow marvelling at how slick she was— for _him_ , of all people. Rose, however, kept marvelling at the level of self-deprecation she now knew he hid behind a façade of cockiness, and sent steady streams across their link of ‘ _only you, Doctor_ ’s until she felt it starting to overwhelm him and stopped. Despite it all, she felt tears fall onto her arms, which had linked themselves around her neck, and she let one rise so she could wipe them away with her thumb. 

Tenderness and emotion quickly gave way to burning need when she found the pleasure from minutes or possibly hours (she wasn’t sure) of his steady thrusts was increased tenfold while they were linked. It was like hers was doubled and so was his and she could feel them all at the same time, making her shudder for and away from it, like she was too sensitive for it. Her orgasm hit her unexpectedly, making her bite down deep into his bare shoulder to muffle her screams, and it seemed to trigger him into his own climax, his cool seed hitting her insides and making her channel clench from the unexpected sensation.

The Doctor’s knees gave out for the second time that day, causing them to collapse into a heap of sweaty, half-naked limbs on the floor and making the Doctor’s fingers get jerked away from her temple. They both snapped back into their own minds and winced from the pain of being separated so abruptly, Rose attributing it to mental whiplash. Breathing heavily, she raised a hand to her suddenly aching head and pressed her fingers to her temples, as though trying to reclaim what she’d lost, only to feel the Doctor stiffen on top of her. 

When she looked at him properly, he was staring at her with a look of clear horror on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Beta: Miral-Romanov**.
> 
>  
> 
> A/N: I regret nothing :P Especially the cliffy.


	5. Pendulum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor tries to retreat after getting his bearings straight, but Rose isn't having any of it. She gets an explanation out of him.

Chapter 4  
Pendulum

“Doctor?”

He flinched away from her when Rose called his name, scrambling backward in a desperate attempt to put some distance between them. She frowned, but another sear of pain through her skull made her eyes squeeze shut for a moment and when Rose managed to force them open again, she found he was already zipping up his trousers in record time. And, she noticed with a sinking feeling in her stomach, though he wasn’t looking at her, she could see the shameful look on his face.

_Oh._

Her breath hitched; she’d been so overwhelmed by the awe of their telepathic link and of the Doctor being the one to make the first move that she hadn’t even considered, as she had a hundred times before, that he might regret it. Tears pricking her eyes and shame burning her face, she ducked her head and hurriedly scrambled for her clothes, pulling them on desperately like they were armour. 

Courage seemed to find her after she had her jeans back on, but her shirt stayed in her hands as humiliation was replaced by fury— for God only knows how long, Rose had felt everything he had, and _shame_ wasn’t one of those things. Crossing her arms over her bra-covered chest, she glared at him and snapped in her sharpest voice, “I am _not_ doing this.” The Doctor flinched from her voice again but froze seconds later, still bare-chested and looking away from her, clutching his jumper in tightened hands, not answering. “I am _not_ gonna just walk away and pretend nothin’ happened!” Rose shot at him anyway, voice rising in pitch with every word until she was practically yelling. “You at least owe me a bloody explanation for why you went all psycho on me!” 

“I can’t—” he bit out, voice thick with utter anguish.

“You can’t _what_?!” Rose snarled, when he stopped his sentence short.

“I can’t… explain it,” the Doctor managed.

“ _You can bloody well try_!” she yelled, stomping her foot as the tears she’d been holding back finally splashed over her cheeks.

He looked, if possible, even more destroyed by the sight of her crying. Dropping his jumper back onto the grating, he stumbled towards her with his arms outstretched and said in horror, “Oh Rose, don’t cry—”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” she shrieked irrationally, stumbling away from him and forcefully wiping away her tears with the back of her hand. “Just… fucking _try_ and tell me what the hell just happened.” 

The Doctor let his arms fall back to his sides, looking like he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with them. He opened his mouth and closed it again multiple times, but when he finally spoke it was to stammer out in an incoherent mess. “I needed to… she didn’t know what she was doing; it was my fault for not tellin’ her the risks, and she shouldn’t’ve been able to anyway—”

“Doctor,” Rose interrupted, and he stopped at once, tension radiating through his body like he wanted nothing more than to run away. Trying to tamp down her own fury, she took his hand and led him over to the ramp so they could sit side by side and forced her voice to be gentler. “Just… slow down, yeah? What happened after I left you an’ Reinette?”

Looking a hell of a lot calmer than he had before, he inhaled deeply before saying slowly, trying hard not to stumble over his words again, “I had to… look into her mind to see if there was anything that was attracting the droids.”

“Like what you did to me?” Rose frowned, feeling a flare of jealousy in her stomach at the prospect of Reinette experiencing what she just had.

He flinched yet again at the mention of what they’d just done but hastily said, as though trying to reassure her, “No. It was a very detached examination, Rose.”

“All right,” Rose said, feeling mollified despite herself. She turned to look at him but hastily turned away again when she found herself eye-level with the pink bite mark she’d made on his shoulder, and with a slightly red face she asked, “So what made you…?”

She let her sentence trail off, waving her hand in front of them as though to complete it without words. He let out a shaky breath. “I don’t know how to explain it,” he said, sounding frustrated. Rose caught herself before she could do something to comfort him, still feeling irked from earlier. “She… somehow forced her way into my head. Should’ve been impossible for her.” Rose felt her stomach churn with sympathy for him despite her poor understanding of telepathy, but she still couldn’t understand why it set him off the way it did. He’d basically done the same to her (though she didn’t begrudge him) and while it had hurt like hell for a bit, she hadn’t gone mad from it whatsoever. Before she could voice her confusion, he supplied with a bitter chuckle, “S’already wonky up there, Rose. Haven’t connected telepathically with anyone since the Time War, and even back then somebody doin’ that was considered…” He went totally silent for a few seconds, mouth moving like the words were stuck in his throat, “… _mental rape_.”

His voice dropped to a horrified whisper, and Rose nearly slapped her palm to her forehead. It was no wonder he’d looked so appalled when he got his bearings straight— by his standards, he’d just basically raped her mind. Relief blossomed in her chest and she breathed out, “Oh _Doctor_ ,” and practically drifted towards him. He turned at once to accommodate her, accepting her embrace with the desperation of a dying man, trembling slightly underneath her arms. Trailing her fingers up his back, she assured him on a quiet murmur, “You didn’t, Doctor. Not to me.”

“I did,” he gasped out around the lump in his throat.

“You didn’t,” she repeated. “I promise.” Her head tucked itself into the crook of his neck, waiting until he calmed down a bit, and she found herself in view of the bite mark on his shoulder again. Without thinking she lifted a hand and trailed her finger along the outlines, and he shivered slightly but didn’t react beyond that. Growing bolder, she admitted quietly, “Besides I-I quite liked it, actually. You could tell, yeah?”

“Yeah,” came a breathy rumble in her ear, and it was Rose’s turn to shiver.

She hummed in reply, pressing a kiss to the mark before leaning up to whisper, “Would like to do it again.”

The Doctor tensed up at once and started pulling away at once, saying with another anguished tone, “Rose, I can’t—”

“You’re scared,” she stated matter-of-factly. She’d seen it in his mind, felt how many times he’d wanted to take the next step but was scared off by the potential consequences, the possibilities ranging from her being horrified at his advances and demanding to be taken home to the future pain he’d feel when she inevitably died. “S’okay— so’m I. Honestly Doctor, this is bloody terrifying.” 

His expression lit up with slight awe, astonished at her admittance. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Rose said, the side of her mouth quirking up. “We don’t need to do the mind thing again just yet. We could just… go slow, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he breathed back, feeling himself return the smile. 

“Good,” she said, gently pressing her forehead to his. “Slow then?”

“Mm,” the Doctor sighed, tilting his head forward in search of her mouth.

Before he could kiss her, several loud bangs and a shout echoed outside the TARDIS, making them both spring apart. “Shit,” Rose exclaimed, jumping to her feet and hauling him up with her. “We forgot about Jack!” 

“The droid,” the Doctor said aloud, nearly smacking himself at how he’d gotten so sidetracked he’d actually forgotten where they were and what they were doing there. He hurried towards the doors, fully prepared to jump to Harkness’ rescue, but Rose’s snort made him pause. “What?”

“Might want to bring these with you,” Rose said with a grin, tossing his jumper and jacket towards him. “Unless you want Jack to see the mark on your shoulder and spend the next six months askin’ if he can join in.”

The Doctor stared down at his bare chest before his cheeks flushed pink. “Oh.”

*

Jack had, upon parting ways with Rose, resisted the urge to whistle a jaunty tune as he stalked the halls in search of the droid. The captain had certainly gotten around, but Reinette was almost impossibly gorgeous for someone from her time period — as was King Louis the Fifteenth — and Jack was hopeful that, after all this nonsense was sorted, the Doctor would just drop him off in Versailles and come back in a couple of hours. Maybe a day or two.

He’d been abruptly pulled out of his daydreams (and subconscious planning on how to get Reinette and King Louis in bed) by a metal hand seizing his arm. Before he could shout out, a plunger depressed in his neck and something cold swept through his system, knocking him out. 

When Jack woke up, he found himself lying on a metal table with multiple creepy, smiley-faced masks hovering over him. He shouted out in alarm and jerked upward, but found himself restrained, just tightly enough so that he couldn’t struggle too much. He realised with a stab in his gut that the faces belonged to a group of droids, and that they most likely intended to chop him up into mincemeat. 

“All right, we can negotiate this, can’t we?” Jack said, flashing them a charming grin as he started wriggling his hands discreetly. “You’ve got plenty of parts already— you don’t need mine. I mean, they’re ridiculously handsome and all, but they’d be useless in a ship.”

“You are compatible,” replied the nearest droid.

“Was afraid of that,” Jack said under his breath, through his grin. “Well, would you mind doing my manly parts last? Kind of attached to them, to be honest.” 

Instead of answering this time, the droid lifted its arm and drew out an elongated blade with a sharpened wheel spinning at the end, like a miniature buzz saw. As it began reaching for his right leg, Jack increased his struggling, muttering, “Shit-shit-shit-shit…” under his breath.

Just before the droid began cutting through his jeans, Jack managed to wriggle his fingers into his pocket and pull out a small laser scalpel. He whooped in triumph, slicing through the bindings before aiming the scalpel at the droid. The laser cut through the droid’s arm like paper and it clattered to the ground, all of the droids turned to watch it fall behind their masks as though fascinated. Through the doorway came the Doctor and Rose at top speed, the Doctor already wielding his sonic like a weapon.

“Get down, Jack!” Rose demanded, hoisting up a silver thing that looked suspiciously like a Venusian stun gun.

Jack obediently rolled off the table and ducked behind it as Rose fired a bolt of orange light into the group of droids, who all barrelled over like bowling pins. The foremost one that had gotten the full blast of it was lying on the floor with a sizzling hole in its chest; the ones that had managed to stay upright all slumped over like a switch had been turned, completely immobile.

“Blimey, didn’t think it’d do that much damage,” Rose exclaimed curiously, blinking at the weapon in her hands.

“Think you have it at the highest setting,” the Doctor commented.

“Not that I’m complaining,” Jack chipped in, peeking his head over the table. He frowned when he noticed a barely visible red mark peeking out from underneath the neckline of the Doctor’s jumper, but brushed it off. “Is that a Venusian stun gun?” 

“Yes,” the Doctor answered for him, as Jack gleefully accepted the second stun gun from Rose. “Now, that’s enough lying about for you, Harkness. Time we got the rest of the ship turned off.”

He approached the ship’s console and began pressing buttons on the console, and upon glancing warily at the motionless droids Rose asked him, “Are those things safe?” 

“For now,” the Doctor said, pausing to give them a quick once-over with his sonic. “They did a manual shut-down to discourage you from destroying them too.” Frowning, he smacked the console with the heel of his hand and said to himself with frustration, “The windows aren’t closing. Why won’t they close?”

“Should we just destroy them anyway?” Jack asked, ignoring the Doctor’s muttering. 

Before the Doctor could answer, the sound of a bell started ringing throughout the ship, startling the trio. “What’s that?” Rose said with a frown, looking around for the source.

“I don’t know,” he responded. “Incoming message?”

“From who?” Jack asked.

The Doctor looked over to the console, expression sombre, and said with concern, “Report from the field. One of them must still be out there with Reinette. That’s why I can’t close the windows. There’s an override.”

The group of hunched-over droids, save for the destroyed one on the floor, suddenly reactivated and straightened up. Rose gasped and both she and Jack raised their guns, but the droids merely boomed at them in tangent, “She is complete. It begins,” and vanished in a flash of glittering gold light. 

“What’s happening?” Rose exclaimed worriedly.

“One of them must have found the right time window,” the Doctor said grimly. “Now it’s time to send in the troops. And this time they’re bringing back her head.”

“What time window though?” Jack frowned. 

“Maybe s’got something to do with her age?” Rose suggested. “She seems to be getting older with each new time window.”

The Doctor’s mouth gaped open, eyes blown wide, and he shouted, “ _Rose Tyler, you’re a genius_!” before grabbing her by the shoulders and smacking a kiss right on her mouth.

Rose went bright red on the spot and Jack exclaimed with a grin, “And when did this start?” 

“Focus, Harkness,” the Doctor barked, but his own cheeks were tinted pink at his own audacity. “Remember what it said in the ship’s archives? The ship’s named after Madame de Pompadour, so they start opening time windows into her life. The ship was commissioned and launched thirty-seven years ago, so it stands to reason—”

“— they’re trying to get to her when she’s thirty-seven!” Rose finished for him in amazement. It was almost poetic, in a gruesome and macabre way.

“Why didn’t they just open a time window to when she was thirty-seven?” Jack asked.

“With the amount of damage to these circuits, they did well to hit the right century,” the Doctor said. “Trial and error after that. We’re going to need to warn her.”

Rose glanced at him and was shocked to see the barely visible shadow of fear flickering over the Doctor’s face, but the shock quickly gave way to understanding in remembrance of the utter turmoil that had roiled in his mind earlier. Slipping her hand into his and ignoring Jack’s eyebrow quirk of confusion, Rose said gently, “I could do it, if you want. Reckon she still remembers me, yeah?”

The Doctor hummed gratefully, practically floating towards her and accepting her offered embrace. Jack broke the pleasant silence by saying with cheerful curiosity, “Did I miss something?”

“Shut up, Jack, we’re havin’ a moment,” Rose mumbled into the Doctor’s jacket, and he chuckled.

*

With the Doctor mollified and Jack successfully silenced (but still smirking to himself like a smug git) Rose made her way by herself to the nearest time window — which the Doctor double-, triple- and quadruple-checked to be the correct one before allowing her through — and pushed aside what appeared to be an elegantly woven wall tapestry. Reinette was sitting primly on an embroidered stool by the window, a wistful look on her face. She seemed so lost in thought that she didn’t even notice Rose’s entrance.

“Madame de Pompadour?” she said in a tentative voice, and Reinette gasped and immediately jumped up, whirling around. Rose raised her hands up and said hastily, “Please, don’t scream or anything.” Reinette obediently relaxed when she recognised the bottle-blonde fireplace girl, but Rose’s face remained in a grim expression. Reinette wordlessly gestured for her to take a seat on another stool across from hers, which she took gratefully. “We haven’t got a lot of time. I’ve come to warn you that they’ll be here in five years.”

“Five years?” Reinette blinked, wringing her hands.

Rose nodded. “Some time after your thirty-seventh birthday. I, er, I can’t give you an exact date,” she said regretfully. “S’a bit random. But they’re coming. It’s going to happen. In a way, for us, it’s already happening.” She looked frustrated for a moment. “I’m sorry, it’s hard to explain. The Doctor does this better.”

“Then be exact, and I will be attentive,” Reinette assured her, patting her hand.

“There isn’t time,” Rose insisted.

“There are five years,” the courtesan pointed out with confusion.

“For you. I haven’t got anywhere near that long,” Rose replied.

“Then also be concise.”

Sweeping her hair back, Rose blew out a breath through puffed cheeks and began tentatively, “Er, there’s, say, a vessel… a ship, a sort of sky ship, and it’s full of… well, you. Different bits of your life in different rooms, all jumbled up.” Rose wrinkled her nose at her own botched explanation and said apologetically, “I told you it was complicated. Sorry.”

Reinette frowned at her clasped hands, trying to piece it together in her mind, but all she could imagine was a galleon in the sky floating above Versailles. Hoping saying it aloud would make it fit better, Reinette said slowly, “There is a vessel in your world where the days of my life are pressed together like the chapters of a book, so that you and your fireplace men may step from one to the other without increase of age while I, weary traveller, must always take the slower path.”

Rose smiled gently at her, remembering the Doctor’s rant about her intelligence. “He was right about you.”

Leaving her comment either unnoticed or deemed unimportant, Reinette ploughed on. “So, in five years these creatures will return. What can be done?”

“The Doctor says keep them talking,” Rose instructed. “They’re kind of programmed to respond to you now. You won’t be able to stop them, but you might be able to delay them a bit.”

“Until?” Reinette said, sensing there was more to the plan.

“Until the Doctor can get there.”

“He’s coming, then?” she said, mind flitting back to the Doctor’s abrupt departure some few months back. She was surprised he hadn’t left her behind to deal with the clockwork men altogether.

“He promises,” Rose assured her.

Reinette narrowed her eyes and said, “But he cannot make his promises in person?” As Rose fidgeted in place, Reinette’s cheeks tinted pink with shame and she ducked her head so Rose wouldn’t see. “He is angry with me.”

“Not exactly,” Rose said hesitantly, sparing a glance at the tapestry as though worried the Doctor was eavesdropping. “S’also a bit complicated.”

“He told you what occurred?” Reinette said, with a bit of shame.

“Yeah,” Rose said quietly. “He doesn’t blame you, y’know. Said you shouldn’t even have been able to do it.”

“Why did he run?” Reinette asked, finally gathering up the courage to look at Rose and grateful to see no blame on her face.

“Well, like I said, it’s sort of complicated,” Rose said, shrugging one shoulder, not entirely certain if she had the right to repeat the Doctor’s words. But Reinette looked nervous and ashamed and Rose couldn’t help but try and lessen that. “See, his people can go into each other’s minds, yeah? Sometimes it’s just an examination to make sure everything’s all right up there, like he did with you, and other times—” Reinette took note of the furious blush that spread blotchily across Rose’s cheeks, “— other times it’s like sharing your feelings and parts of yourself. But there are rules you have to follow. Like, both sides have to consent to it. To them I guess it’s sort of like-like sex?” Both women went red, despite the occupation of one of them. “An’ you goin’ into his head without permission was basically rape,” Rose finished, waving her hand vaguely. 

“How awful of me,” Reinette exclaimed in horror, placing a hand over her mouth. 

“You didn’t know,” Rose said reassuringly. “He doesn’t hold it against you, he said.”

“And you?” 

Rose blinked at the sudden question. “What d’you mean?”

“You and the fireplace man are courting, yes?” Reinette said. 

Rose felt her face burn yet again and resisted the urge to curse. “Er, yeah,” she said after a lengthy silence, even though she wasn’t entirely sure _what_ they were doing at this point.

“And yet you sit here with me as a friendly presence,” Reinette said, “reassuring me of my horrid actions and promising to keep me safe as you have since I was a child, instead of berating me as you should.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Rose insisted again.

“So you say.” Grasping Rose’s hands tightly in her almost impossibly dainty ones, Reinette smiled warmly and said, “I am lucky to have you as my guardian, fireplace girl.” Rose returned the smile brightly, stammering out her thanks, but Reinette continued, “If I may ask a personal question?”

“Sure,” Rose said, nodding.

“Whyever do you, with such a compassionate heart, tie yourself to a man like the Doctor?”

“What d’you mean?” Rose asked again, frowning and uncertain if she should be insulted on the Doctor’s behalf.

“I assume you too have seen inside his mind, yes?” Reinette took another blush on Rose’s end as confirmation. “Perhaps you have seen plenty more of it than I have, with my brief violation. Then you have seen, to a far greater extent, the turmoil and anger that makes up your fireplace man. You are a stark contrast, my dear fireplace girl.”

“Listen,” Rose said through gritted teeth, not wanting to snap at the woman since she really didn’t understand what she was talking about. “The Doctor’s been through more than anything you or I could even think of.”

“I would imagine so,” Reinette said, not noticing Rose’s anger. “One does not carry so much chaos in one’s mind after a lifetime of riches and hugs from one’s mother. He is demonstrably broken and full of hatred. A bad wolf masquerading itself in a docile sheep’s clothing.” 

Rose allowed herself the liberty of staring at Reinette with her mouth open in a decidedly ungraceful manner. It was almost pathetic how Reinette had completely misunderstood the Doctor, even after a perusal through his mind. “Look,” Rose said quietly, the barest of trembles in her voice betraying her reigned anger, “the Doctor’s got every right to hate the universe, but he doesn’t. He saves people. He’s savin’ you right now.” Hyperaware that she’d been here for too long already, Rose stood up and muttered, “I have to go.”

Reinette looked disappointed, rising with her. “When will the Doctor be coming?”

“He’ll be there when you need him,” Rose said. “That’s the way it’s got to be.”

Reinette’s expression changed to slight irritation. “It’s the way it’s always been. The monsters and the Doctor. It seems you cannot have one without the other.”

“Tell me about it,” Rose snorted. “The thing is, you weren’t supposed to have either. Those creatures are messing with history. None of this was ever supposed to happen to you.” For good measure Rose added, still fuming over Reinette’s earlier words, “You’re part of history, which is part of the reason why the Doctor has to save you, but most of it is because he’s a good person and hates that you’ve had to suffer with this for your whole life.”

Reinette’s cheeks coloured in shame, and for one bizarre moment Rose wished she could blush that prettily. Through the time window, Jack’s voice calling Rose’s name made them whirl around, where the captain was emerging from the tapestry.

“Rose?” he repeated, taking a sweeping look around the room, eyes landing on the two women. A sly grin curled over his mouth, making Rose groan quietly, and he strode across the room quick as a lightning bolt, taking Reinette’s hand in his and bending over it to press a kiss to her wrist. “Hello there, angel,” Jack said suavely, quirking an eyebrow at her. “Captain Jack Harkness, lovely to meet you.”

As Reinette blushed a pleased pink, Rose rolled her eyes and said shortly, “Can’t you wait ‘til we find the right time window for this, Jack?”

“We already did,” Jack informed her, letting go of Reinette’s hand with a wink. “That’s what I came to tell you. Sounds chaotic out there, so we should probably take our leave, Madame,” Jack added, turning back to Reinette only to find an empty room. 

Both he and Rose frowned, turning around to see Reinette had slipped away from them and was pushing back the tapestry that they had both emerged from. 

“No, you can’t go in there, the Doctor will go mad!” Rose hissed, hurrying after her. 

Reinette ignored her, ducking underneath the tapestry but halted in her tracks immediately when her eyes met the strange metal room. The ambient noise from space was roaring and slightly nerve-wracking, reminding her of being lost in the dark. It was equal parts terrifying and fascinating, going from the lavish colour of her home in Versailles to the almost cold metal of the sky ship.

“So, this is your world,” Reinette murmured, drinking it all in. Both she and Rose jumped slightly when the sounds of many people screaming echoed through the halls. “What was that?”

“The time window,” Jack said. “The Doctor fixed the audio link.”

Swallowing, Reinette said softly, “Those screams. Is that my future?”

“Yeah,” Rose said. Looking at Reinette’s horrified look, Rose said with genuine pity, “I’m sorry.”

Inhaling deeply, Reinette squared her shoulders and said firmly, “Then I must take the slower path.”

Down the hall, to everyone’s shock, they could hear Reinette’s own panicked voice shouting in an echoing way, “ _Are you there? Can you hear me? I need you now. You promised. The clock on the mantel is broken. It is time_!”

“That’s my voice,” Reinette breathed, stunned.

Laying a hand on Reinette’s shoulder, Rose said softly, “Are you okay?”

Reinette shook her head, eyes wide as coins and staring off down the hall where her voice had emanated. “No, I’m very afraid. But I have much faith in you, fireplace girl,” Reinette added, turning towards Rose and hugging her shoulders tightly. Rose hugged her back, feeling subtle trembles in the other woman. Pulling away but keeping Rose at arm’s length, Reinette continued, “And if you say the Doctor will come, then I believe you. I hope you will come as well.”

“I will,” Rose assured her.

With one final smiled, Reinette turned away and walked back through the tapestry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Beta: Miral-Romanov**.
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> A/N: So, my computer straight-out snuffed it, like three days after it came back from the shop -_- So, this month has been entertaining. Idk if any other writers out there have ever had fifteen minutes a day at 11 pm to write, but if there are, they're probably as stir-crazy as I am. Although I did enjoy the theorising from last chap's cliffy :3 Anyone pleased at the outcome?


	6. Escapement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reinette is rescued from the invasion of clockwork droids at the masked ball.

Chapter 5  
Escapement

Reinette spent the day she turned thirty-seven — and every day of the next three months, subsequently — with a nagging feeling of mortal terror in the back of her mind. Every person that Reinette caught brief sight of out of the corner of her eye made her heart stutter, and she was loath to be by herself in a room with any place that a clockwork man might hide. Her beloved king thought her mad but never questioned her behaviour whenever she’d order the servants to remove things like tapestries on the wall, large curtains that hung to the ground, dressers and the like.

Various balls were thrown since her birthday, including one on the date itself, and the first handful or so Reinette was far too nervous to enjoy them. How was she to know that one of the clockwork men weren’t waiting in the crowd, ready to snatch her away to the metal sky ship? Eventually she began to relax a little more at such events and took on a new attitude— if they were coming for her, she’d meet them head-on with confidence, knowing Rose and the Doctor would come for her. She’d heard the screams coming from some sort of ‘window’, as the handsome captain friend had said, so in a sense they were already there. Perhaps, by their standards, they had already rescued her. 

Honestly, she tried not to think about it too much— trying to figure out their world gave her awful headaches.

The masked ball had been something Reinette had been looking forward to, in actuality. However when a handful of the metal men had stomped into the crowd of patrons, dressed in their horrible masks and swiping their spinning blades at anyone in their way, everyone in the ballroom began running for the exits, screaming in an alarmingly familiar way. Reinette had immediately fled for the fireplace and stared with hope at the broken clock, remembering her own self’s words and ignoring when King Louis ran in after her.

“We are under attack!” he exclaimed, grabbing her arm. “There are creatures… I don’t even think they’re human! We can’t stop them.”

“The clock is broken,” Reinette said firmly, more to herself than to him. “They’re coming.”

“Did you hear what I said?” Louis said urgently.

“Listen to me,” Reinette said, turning to him and giving him a sharp look. “There are two people coming to Versailles. They have watched over me my whole life and they will not desert me tonight.”

“What are you talking about?” Louis said confusedly. “What people?”

“People from my childhood, who have protected me throughout my life,” Reinette said in earnest. When Louis sent her an exasperated look, a look she’s seen many times over the months when she got rid of the furniture with no explanations, Reinette added sharply, “No, don’t look like that, there’s no time. You have your duties. I am your mistress. Go to your queen.” Turning away from him and facing the fireplace, she began to shout into the flames. “Are you there? Can you hear me? I need you now. You promised. The clock on the mantel is broken. It is time. Doctor! _Rose_!”

Apparently at his wit’s end with her unexplained antics, Louis grabbed her arm again and hauled her upright. “We must go. No one is coming to help us.”

Reinette’s shoulders slumped in defeat, but before Louis could pull her through the doorway three of the clockwork men stalked inside, stopping the both of them in their tracks. One raised its arm and chanted, “You are complete. You will come.”

“Where are we going?” Reinette asked despite herself, taking a few tentative steps forward.

“The teleport has limited range,” it said, even though Reinette couldn’t understand its words. “We must have proximity to the time portal.”

“Your words mean nothing,” Reinette spat, clenching her fists even as they escorted her away. “You are nothing.”

Completely ignoring her, the other two droids seizing both of the king’s arms and followed their brethren out the door.

*

After Reinette left through the tapestry, Jack escorted Rose back into the spaceship’s console room, where the Doctor was sonicking a large screen embedded into the bulkhead with a furious look on his face. On the screen was the image of a fancy ballroom, with multiple masked guests in period clothing running around like madmen and screaming. Several clockwork droids were blocking the entrance, preventing anyone from escaping.

“You found it, then?” Rose asked, approaching him.

Lowering his sonic with a frustrated huff, he said, “They knew I was coming. They blocked it off.”

Rose frowned. “I don’t get it. How come they got in there?”

“They teleported,” the Doctor said. “You saw them. As long as the ship and the ballroom are linked, their short-range teleports will do the trick.”

“Can’t we go in the TARDIS?” Jack asked, feeling stunned that he was the one pointing out a very obvious option.

“We can’t use the TARDIS,” the Doctor said, to Jack’s shock. “We’re part of events now.”

“Well, can’t we just smash through?” Rose asked, gesturing to the glass.

“Hyperplex this side, plate glass the other. We need a truck.”

“We don’t have a truck,” Jack pointed out unhelpfully.

“I know we don’t have a truck!” the Doctor snapped.

“Well, we’ve got to try something,” Rose said with frustration.

The Doctor blinked as the horse from earlier trotted in from behind them, glancing at him lazily and greeting him with a snort. It might just be enough to break through the glass, if he got a running start… “No,” he said to himself, shaking his head. “Smash the glass, smash the time window. There’d be no way back.”

“What’re you talkin’ about?” Rose asked confusedly, following his line of sight to the horse. His realisation occurred to her as well and she said at once, “We have to.”

“ _No_ , Rose,” the Doctor said at once.

“We have to!” Rose exclaimed in astonishment, gesturing towards the time window. 

“Um, can I know what you guys are talking about?” Jack said confusedly.

Ignoring him, the Doctor grabbed Rose by the shoulders and said firmly, “Rose, if any of us go through that time window, it’s going to break for good. Not just that one, but all the other ones too. There’ll be _no way back_.” 

“We _have_ to, Doctor,” Rose repeated, suddenly irrationally furious. Whatever Reinette had done that had been so heinous in the eyes of his people couldn’t possibly mean the Doctor actually wanted the woman hurt. “Reinette’s gonna _die_ if we don’t. You’re the one who told me she was an important historical figure— I’m pretty sure it doesn’t say that her death was ‘cos of homicidal androids in the history books.”

He fell silent, and Rose felt a moment of triumph, up until he said bitingly, “Fine. I’ll go.”

“What?” Rose said with a frown. “You can’t! You’re the only one who knows how to pilot the TARDIS.”

“It’s fine, Rose,” the Doctor said in a quiet voice, giving her a small, defeated smile. “A couple of centuries ago I played a part in the Boston Tea Party— I can hitch a ride with a past version of myself. The TARDIS can track herself through time; she’ll have me back here in seconds.”

“Not for you,” Rose pointed out, crossing her arms. “How many years in the future is that, huh? Decades?” The Doctor’s face flickered with shadow, confirming her suspicions. “‘M not gonna let you stay in regency France on the slow path for God knows how long.”

“Rose—” the Doctor began with exasperation.

“What if I just do it?” Rose said, ignoring him. Before he could protest she added quickly, “You could come get me in the TARDIS in a few minutes. It won’t hurt the timelines if the events are over, yeah?”

His mouth was pressed into a thin line, looking like he very much wanted to protest but knew full well her plan was better than his— and honestly, he wasn’t entirely sure he was even able to live fourteen years without her or without his ship. “Fine,” he bit out, stuffing his sonic into her hand. “Take that, just in case. It’s set to disable the droids, but you most likely won’t need it— once their link to the ship is severed and the time windows are broken, they’ll be done with.”

“Right,” Rose nodded, pocketing the sonic.

The Doctor looked like he was going to say something else, but instead he gave her a look she couldn’t distinguish before he suddenly grabbed her shoulders and hauled her forward. Their mouths crashed together hard enough to bruise, noses smushing together and teeth clashing; it was completely inelegant, but Rose reciprocated with as much enthusiasm as she could, digging her fingernails into his shoulders hard enough to leave a series of tiny marks. Jack grinned at them, nodding his head in approval but knowing enough not to comment.

Pulling back, the Doctor stared at her with flushed cheeks and burning eyes and said, “Promise you’ll be okay.”

“Yeah,” Rose answered fondly, sending him a tongue-touched grin. “Promise me you’re not gonna be _twelve months late_ again.”

He grinned sheepishly. “Promise.”

Quirking an eyebrow, she added, “Good. Now give me the horse.”

*

As the droids escorted Reinette and her king into the ballroom, she was appalled to see the insane behaviour of the frightened guests, running around like fools despite being completely trapped. 

Pushing her way in front of the droids, Reinette spread her arms out and said loudly, her voice echoing through the grand room, “Could everyone just calm down? Please.” The guests stopped in their tracks, turning their masked faces to look at the oddly calm courtesan. “Such a commotion,” she added in disdain. “Such distressing noise. Kindly remember that this is Versailles. This is the Royal Court, and we are French.” Turning to face the droids with a firm look on her face, she said for all to hear, “I have made a decision. And my decision is no, I shall not be going with you today. I have seen your world, and I have no desire to set foot there again.”

“We do not require your feet,” the nearest droid boomed, and Reinette resisted the urge to roll her eyes— these clockwork men were absolute fools, it seemed.

Two female droids emerged from the crowd and placed a hand each on Reinette’s shoulders, pushing her to her knees. She kept her head and back straight as she was forced to the ground, gown flaring out below her. “You think I fear you, but I do not fear you even now,” she said sharply, staring straight ahead of her. “You are merely the nightmare of my childhood. The monster from under my bed. And if my nightmare can return to plague me, then rest assured, so will yours.”

A faint, warped echo of a horse’s loud neigh and the sound of galloping hooves made all in the room look up, even Reinette and the droids; and, to everyone’s astonishment, the mirror above the mantelpiece suddenly shattered from the inside out and through it soared a white horse. Reinette’s mouth dropped open and her heart swelled with hope when she saw that Rose was atop the horse, clutching onto its neck for dear life.

“Well, that looked easier from the other end,” Rose breathed, shakily sliding off the ridiculously calm-looking horse. 

“Rose!” burst out Reinette with glee, even as she continued to kneel on the floor, and Rose gave a cheerful wave once she’d gathered her wits.

“What the hell is going on?” gaped Louis from behind Reinette.

“With all due respect, Your Majesty, stow it for now, yeah?” Rose said while staring down the main droid, causing the king to gape.

“You will leave,” the droid said, and if its voice wasn’t automated to be stoic Rose suspected it would have sounded indignant. “You will let us complete our mission.”

“You don’t have one anymore,” Rose told it, uncharacteristically confident with the knowledge that she’d already won. “I just broke all the time windows to the ship. No way back for you, mate.” It and the rest of the droids stared at her from behind their masks, and Rose slipped her hand into her pocket and wrapped her fingers around the sonic, just in case the droid didn’t take the news well. “Look for yourself,” she added, when the droids just continued to watch her. Gesturing to the smashed remnants of the mirror, Rose said, “It’s gone. You can’t get back to the future; you’re stuck here. What’s the point of getting the parts when you can’t get to the ship?”

They seemed to contemplate her words for a moment before, to Rose’s incredible relief, all of them began to shut down, slumping in various directions. One fell backwards and smashed into pieces of cogs and gears, which scattered over the floor, and a few people in the crowd gasped at the noise and hastened to back away to avoid stepping on the pieces. 

Shoulders slumping in relief that the plan had worked, Rose took her hand out of her pocket and asked Reinette, “You all right?” 

Reinette nodded and, with a beam and a very unladylike gesture, hurled herself at Rose and hugged her tightly. “I knew you would come, fireplace girl,” she breathed.

Rose flushed with delight and hugged the woman back. “Promised, didn’t I?” 

“You did, my dear friend.” Turning to face the motionless droids, Reinette asked, “What's happened to them?

“They've stopped,” Rose said. “They have no purpose now.”

“You said the windows to the sky ship are all gone?” Rose nodded, and Reinette frowned and asked with concern, “However will you get back to your fireplace man, Rose?”

“Oh, don’t worry, he’s got his own ship— he’ll be here in a bit,” Rose said, but her mind couldn’t help but flash with missing posters and her mum’s look of utter shock when she waltzed into the flat after a year. “He’d better be here in a bit,” she added under her breath.

Thankfully, not seconds after she’d spoken, the wonderful grinding sound of the TARDIS materialising in a nearby room made Rose grin and the guests frown, turning their heads in search of the noise. The Doctor immediately threw himself through the doorway and into the ballroom, boots skidding on the floor and eyes scanning the crowd for Rose while Jack jogged in behind him. When he spotted her, he nearly tripped over himself in anticipation to get to her.

“It worked, then?” the Doctor said earnestly, looking her up and down for any injuries.

“Yeah.” Rose grinned at him, tongue at the corner of her mouth. “Told ya I could do it.”

“Never doubted that, Rose,” he said fondly, sending her one of his rather silly smiles before scooping her up into a tight hug. Reinette cleared her throat primly from beside them, making the Doctor pull away and look at her with an indiscernible expression on his face. “Hello Reinette,” he said, in an almost businesslike tone. “You’re looking well.”

“Thanks to Rose,” Reinette said just as stiffly, something slightly accusatory in her voice. Addressing Rose more than the Doctor, Reinette turned to her stunned-looking king and said, “This is my lover, the king of France.”

The king, tempering down his shock, merely gave them a curt nod, eyes lingering on Rose in a way that made the Doctor scowl. “Yeah? Well, I’m the Lord of Time,” he said shortly, grabbing Rose’s hand as a show of dominance and making her roll her eyes.

“And I’m Captain Jack Harkness,” added Jack with a grin, taking it upon himself to hop in front of both Rose and the Doctor. “And may I just say, your ass looks great in those pants.”

Rose stifled a snort behind her hand as the king blushed crimson and, upon noticing a few onlookers starting to snicker and/or look scandalised, turned away from them all and shouted, “All right, nothing to see here! You may return home, the danger is gone!” 

As people began filing out of the ballroom, some exclamations could be heard from the halls of, “Whatever is this peculiar box doing in the king’s estate?” and someone even had the sense to lead the horse out of the ballroom with them. Once the guests had made themselves scarce, Reinette turned to Rose with a smile on her face.

“Now that this ordeal is over, I insist you stay in the castle as proper guests,” she said.

The Doctor’s horror flickered through his stoic mask for a brief moment, and he said hastily, “No can do, sorry ‘bout that. Rose and I’ve got to get going. People to see, places to blow up.”

Rose elbowed him in the ribs and sent him a sharp look for being so rude, but it was Jack who protested. “Aw, come on, Doc,” he said. “We can’t just leave these droids here in the middle of Regency France and let metals from the future enter circulation. Also, I want to get better acquainted with these two gorgeous people,” he added, sending a wink apiece in both Louis and Reinette’s directions.

“That sounds lovely— sergeant, did you say?” Reinette said with a pleased little blush, circling her arm around his and starting to escort him towards the exit. 

“Captain, actually, my dear Madame,” Jack said happily, seeming to stand an inch taller.

The king looked equal parts furious and stunned, watching them walk away with his mouth dropped open, and Rose tapped his shoulder and said in a low voice, “Best to just go with it, Your Majesty. Trust me, he’ll thank you.”

The king snapped his mouth shut and tugged on his doublet for a moment in an indignant little gesture before hurrying over to them and claiming Reinette’s other arm, and Rose grinned when she heard Jack’s voice boom out with delight, “I hope that means you’re joining us, sexy.” 

“Well, that’s gonna take a day or two,” Rose said conversationally, as Jack innuendo-laced chatter faded away.

The Doctor wrinkled his nose in disgust but said nothing but, “Well then, might as well get to work,” and the two of them began hauling droids into the TARDIS.

*

After nearly an hour of picking apart the clockwork droids on the floor of the TARDIS, the Doctor instructing which metals were from the future and which could be left behind in France, a small, prim knock sounded on the door. When Rose opened it, she was surprised to find a nervous-looking Reinette on the other side.

“I thought you’d be with Jack,” Rose said, frowning and shutting the door behind her.

“He is entertaining my king at the moment,” Reinette said, and the small smirk on her mouth made it known just what kind of _entertainment_ was going on. “So this is the Doctor’s ship,” she added, quirking a confused eyebrow and giving the wood a pat. “Not as… sophisticated as I might have imagined for such a powerful being.”

“Don’t worry, s’bigger on the inside,” Rose said with a grin. 

Reinette blinked with confusion but decided not to ask. “And now that the metal men have been defeated, will you be returning to your life among the stars?”

“Yeah, ‘course. S’what we do.” Rose shifted from one foot to the other, before adding, “You could come, y’know.”

“To the stars?” Reinette said in shock, mouth falling open.

“Yeah. I mean, I’m sure the Doctor’d let you come for a one-off trip.”

Reinette’s eyes seemed to shine for a moment, before she said finally, “No, thank you, Rose. I could never do what you do and live with monsters for the sake of the Doctor. I believe I’ve had more than enough otherworldly things for a lifetime.”

Despite the clear insult that the Doctor may or may not have heard on the monitor, Rose understood why Reinette refused to come for even one trip. Rose couldn’t imagine being born into the simple, refined world that Reinette came from, being stalked by clockwork droids from childhood onward and then subsequently being rescued by two people who came through her fireplace, one of which had insulted her with his never-ceasing rudeness. After all of that, the run-for-your-life nature of their adventures would seem overbearing. 

Nevertheless, Rose was slightly disappointed when she nodded and said, “All right then.”

Smiling with a bit of understanding in her expression, Reinette stepped forward and gave Rose another prim but warm hug. “Thank you, fireplace girl,” she said, pulling away. 

“Anytime,” Rose grinned, tongue in teeth. 

A noise came from inside the TARDIS — to Reinette it merely sounded like an angry exclamation in a mysterious, chiming language, but Rose knew the Doctor had just cursed — and it prompted the courtesan to square her shoulders with confidence. “I shall take my leave then, Rose,” she said, and a mischievous look flickered in her eyes. “I have a captain and a king to entertain.”

Wrinkling her nose, Rose said, “I’ll leave you to it, then.”

She took a moment to watch Reinette drift out of the room, still a picture of elegance despite being on her way to sleep with two different men. Remembering the Doctor’s comment of, “France. It’s a different planet,” Rose snorted quietly to herself, already imagining the multitude of stories and stupid grins Jack was going to bring back with him and subject them to for the next fortnight. As the courtesan disappeared through the doorway, Rose turned around and re-entered the TARDIS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Beta: Miral-Romanov**.
> 
>  
> 
> A/N: I'll just explain here, because I'm sure there are going to be comments of "where was the horse the whole time?" The answer is... I have no idea. I combed through the episode looking for it, but due to Moffat's inability to organise his episodes, it seems the horse kind of got out of the way and then showed up just in time. So unfortunately, I was forced to make it do the same in here. Plus, because people are ALSO going to point it out, I don't believe that the Doctor couldn't have used the TARDIS to smash through the glass. 'Part of events' is a lazy excuse and just means he shouldn't be able to materialise in the ballroom; it shouldn't pertain to using it like a spaceship to crash through the glass. Wish I could have cleaned that up. EDIT: no this is NOT the end, people XD There's a short epilogue coming to tie up loose ends.


	7. Epilogue - Proper Calibre

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loose ends are tied up with Rose and the Doctor.

Epilogue  
Proper Calibre

A few hours after leaving Reinette behind, dropping off the box of metals with King Louis’ servants and picking up Jack — who spent the whole time whistling a jaunty tune and looking like the king of the universe — things had properly wound down enough for Rose to really think about the day’s events. The day had boosted her confidence in her abilities as a companion slightly. Forget blowing up Number 10 while still in the building— she’d befriended and rescued all on her own the uncrowned queen of France. At the same time, she had also held the Doctor’s entire mind in hers for a brilliant moment, and been snogged and thoroughly shagged against the wall of the TARDIS by him as well. Said Time Lord had hidden himself from her directly after piloting them into the Vortex, despite his earlier agreement to take things slow.

Now, Rose was fixing herself and the Doctor a cuppa in the galley, hoping to coax him out of hiding. Despite her resolve to get the Doctor to properly talk to her, Rose couldn’t help but feel nervous about his potential reaction. Before this entire fiasco, Rose would have worried about him kicking her off the TARDIS for good, but now all she was worried about was that he’d insist they just pretend it hadn’t happened, go back to the way things were before. She was pretty certain she’d spontaneously combust if she had to spend future adventures pretending she didn’t know the Doctor was in love with her. 

“Are you actually gonna put in the milk, or are you just gonna keep holding it?” said the Doctor lightly from behind her, making her jump and nearly drop the milk carton.

Setting down the milk, she turned around and studied him with pensive eyes, took in his calm demeanour and light, teasing smile, like he’d reached some sort of agreement with himself. Still slightly annoyed, Rose turned back to the tea and dumped milk in her cup, remarking coolly, “Where’ve you been?”

“Was looking for a place to put the metals from the clockwork droids,” he explained, stepping towards her and leaning against the counter so she couldn’t hide her face from him. “Couldn’t find the right storage room.”

_Oh_. Rose’s face flushed with shame for being angry with him and assuming he’d just been hiding. As a sort of apology, Rose held out his tea for him to take and said quietly, “S’for you.”

He smiled warmly, accepting the cup. “Thank you.” She nodded in response, stirring in a couple spoonfuls of sugar into her own cuppa and taking a sip for fortitude, trying to figure out what to say. Instead, the Doctor broke the silence by admitting, “I was also hiding a bit.” Rose looked up from her cup, quirking an eyebrow at him, and he added bashfully, “Needed to think.”

“About what?” Rose said, although she already had her suspicions. Her heart sang when the Doctor set down his cup on the counter and took a step closer to close the distance between them, eyes shining with a tamer version of the lust she’d seen earlier in the console room. “Oh,” came out of her mouth without conscious thought, her eyes widening.

The Doctor, without taking his gaze off of her face, took her cup and set it down as well (of which she was thankful, since she wasn’t certain she could keep a proper grip on it at this point) before grabbing her hips and hauling her so forcefully against his front she had to grip his arms to keep from falling. “Rose Tyler,” he said, voice slightly breathy and full of wonder, like she was the most fascinating mystery he’d ever seen. 

Then his mouth was on hers again, warm and bitter tasting from the tea, coaxing her mouth open with tiny nibbles and strokes of his tongue. It was sweet and slow, unlike the crazed, half-conscious instinct of their first kiss and the desperation of their second, and she melted into it, humming when he stroked his palm up the side of her face reverently. The very tip of his finger brushed her temple but hesitated, as though asking for permission, and without opening her eyes Rose let out a whiny noise against his mouth and begged, “Oh please, Doctor, _please_ —” His shaky breath hit her lips before her mind was filled with him again, the sensation of his vibrating pleasure radiating through her whole body and making her clutch at his lapels to keep from collapsing and cry out a semi-coherent, “Ohthankyougod…” 

Rose was so wrapped up in the awe of it that it took a mental plea from the Doctor to remind her to return the favour. With her experiences from last time she backtracked through their link until she reached him, and she gladly poured everything she had of herself into his mind as well, soaking up the awful void in his head left over from the absence of his people and delighting in his very audible, slurred cry of, “ _Oh God, Rose_ …”

The utter ecstasy in his voice made a sharp sear of arousal tighten in her gut, making both of them gasp. Somehow finding the mental capacity to remember that Jack walking in on them having sex in the galley was not the best of plans, she mentally and physically pulled back, glad to see he looked just as dazed as she felt. 

“Let’s take this somewhere more private, yeah?” Rose suggested, cheeks flushed. “Jack’s already acting like a cocky git— don’t need to add any more fuel by letting him catch us shagging on the counter.”

“Right,” he said, casting a quick glance at the doorway. “My place or yours, Rose Tyler?”

“Yours,” she responded, grinning.

“Fantastic.” Grabbing her hand and sending her another heart-stopping look paired with a knowing smirk, the Doctor exclaimed, “Run,” before taking off with her down the hallway, delighting in her gleeful shriek of laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Beta: Miral-Romanov**.
> 
>  
> 
> A/N: Fin! :) Hope you enjoyed this, cos it took some effort to sit through the abomination that was GitF to get the details accurate. Actually, sitting through the episode made a newfound fury at Ten fester, and has inspired a mini-series in which the Doctor totally gets what he deserves for this episode and others :p For glorious GitF revenge, do stay tuned for 'The Man In The Mirror' :) I highly encourage you theorise as to who the man in the mirror is~.

**Author's Note:**

> **All my fics can be found on fanfiction.net, teaspoon and tumblr.**


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